Max Miller, Staff Writer
On July 28th, 2023, Bobby Witt Jr. dug his metal cleats into the manicured ground. His eyes, highlighted by ever-present black streaks carefully placed pre-game, surveyed the scene. Witt was in a strange spot, one virtually unthinkable just an hour before. He stood in the box, staring down a 5-4 deficit, a full count, and feared Jhoan Duran on the bump, with the bases loaded to boot.
Duran reared back, kicked his leg, and fired. 102mph inside. Witt took it 414ft to left field.
For any other budding superstar, this moment would be enshrined in legacy-speak. It is the kind of swing that begins a young man’s rise to the upper echelon of Major League Baseball. The kind of swing that jump-starts an atmospheric climb into becoming the kind of athlete that has their name emblazoned on a shirsey in your seven-year-old Little-League-playing cousin’s shirt drawer. The kind of swing that becomes, at the very least, remembered (shades of Bryce Harper’s 2019 walk-off grand slam against the Chicago Cubs, if you will). So why not Witt? He’s marketable. He’s charismatic with the media. He’s got one hell of a mullet. Why does this moment not feel as iconic as those aforementioned others?
Bobby Witt Jr. has always been seen as special. In high school, he was awarded the coveted 2019 Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year. He was selected as the second pick in the 2019 MLB draft (right behind Adley Rutschman). He was named the 2021 Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year. He was ranked by MLB.com as the number one prospect in professional baseball in 2022. Wherever Witt went, he had been reared as an elite young player with a superstar-level ceiling.
But, when Witt debuted at the big league level, he did not look the part. Originally thought of as a plus defender at shortstop, Witt was dreadful at the position, posting an impressively rough -18 DRS (a stat used to measure defensive prowess), second worst in the entire league. Witt also struggled a bit at the plate, putting up a .722 OPS but a wRC+ just under league average. (For those unfamiliar with these stats, first of all, I apologize. Second, OPS is a number that indicates how good a player is at getting on base and how well they hit for power. wRC+ is a number that indicates how good a hitter is compared to the rest of Major League Baseball, where 100 represents league average.)
This year, however, Witt has turned a corner. Witt is top-10 in fWAR (a number that determines how valuable a player is to their team), cementing him as a premier player in today’s game. He has a 117 wRC+. He has raised his DRS to a much more respectable -4 on the season. So, what’s the issue? Why is Witt’s stardom lagging behind his production?
Bobby Witt Jr. is on the Kansas City Royals, a team currently on the bottom tier of MLB franchises. Currently sitting at 48-102 (wow) at the time of writing, the Royals are, aside from Witt and a few others (hello Brady Singer!), entirely irrelevant to the rest of the league. They are only talked about at the trade deadline when they hold their annual sale of mid-level relievers. Not only is the Major League roster awful, the Royals’ farm system is one of the worst in all of baseball.
I am fully aware that this is ridiculously early. Bobby Witt Jr. still has a few years left on his deal. For all I know, Witt may sign a lucrative extension this offseason and commit to being on the Royals for over ten years. But I can’t help but hope Witt plays meaningful baseball in the near future. He’s already shown his flair for the dramatic. If only Witt was drafted by a team willing to pay players what they are worth instead of trading them away the second they show that they will warrant a costly long-term deal. One can only hope the fleeting baseball gods will intervene.